


a gift of starlight

by kihyuks



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: (for hyungki), Dreams, Established Relationship, Fluff, Getting to Know Each Other, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Multi, Sharing a Bed, Stars, Wishes, pre-polyamory, side changhyuk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:47:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27118406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kihyuks/pseuds/kihyuks
Summary: hyungwon has always promised to give kihyun the stars. kihyun never took it seriously until hyungwon proposes with a ring infused with starlight.
Relationships: Chae Hyungwon/Lee Jooheon/Yoo Kihyun, Chae Hyungwon/Yoo Kihyun
Kudos: 23





	a gift of starlight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hyunguuon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyunguuon/gifts).



> to chloe: happy birthday!!!! i hope u enjoy this fluffy mess HJFSJH

Kihyun can’t help but laugh at the sight in front of him. It’s any ordinary day, just a Wednesday in the middle of December, and he’d come home from work thinking of it as just any other day. There’d been nothing different from usual at all today. Until he’d got home, at least. 

So, what is it that’s so amusing and different about today, you may ask?

Well, the second Kihyun had walked through the front door and into the living room to greet his boyfriend, Hyungwon, he’d found the last sight he expected to see: Hyungwon, sitting on a picnic blanket with an actual wicker basket to his left. On the tv is a still image of a park, and there’s ambient noise of what you’d expect to hear in a park playing through the speakers—the wind whistling through the trees, children laughing and screaming, dogs barking. 

Kihyun stops laughing when Hyungwon looks up at him, unimpressed. “Why are you making fun of all my hard work?” Hyungwon asks, annoyed. 

Kihyun shakes his head with a smile. “I’m not making fun of it. I just— I have literally no idea what’s going on in here.”

“You don’t remember?” Hyungwon asks, a tilt to his head. 

Kihyun frowns, trying to figure out what it is that he’s meant to remember. He shuffles through all his memories with Hyungwon, trying to think of anything at all related to picnics and parks, but he comes up blank. “No?”

Hyungwon pouts. “Are you kidding me? I went to all this effort and you don’t even remember?”

Kihyun tries  _ really  _ hard to remember what Hyungwon is referring to, but it’s pretty much impossible to figure out what he’s meant to remember when he, you know, doesn’t remember. “I’m sorry?” Kihyun says, unsure of himself. This situation is very confusing. 

Hyungwon sighs, then pulls something small out of his pocket. He looks down at the blanket for a few moments, before looking up at Kihyun. Then, he holds out a small box, the thing he pulled from his pocket, and flips it open to reveal a ring. 

The ring is one of the most beautiful rings Kihyun’s ever seen. It’s a simple, silver band with the tiniest gems encrusted in it, but it somehow sparkles more than anything Kihyun’s ever seen before. Almost glowing, even. 

Kihyun gasps and tears spring to his eyes before Hyungwon even gets to ask his question. 

“Yoo Kihyun, will you marry me?”

And now he’s seen the ring, Kihyun remembers, the memory flooding back to him. It’s back when Kihyun and Hyungwon were just friends, two kids in school who never quite fit in with anyone but each other. They’d been talking about— _ something, _ Kihyun can’t quite remember what, but somehow the topic of engagements came up. Kihyun remembers telling Hyungwon about how much he hated the thought of public proposals, and he wanted a private one that was just him and his partner, preferably in a cute setting like a picnic. 

When Kihyun had said it all those years ago, he didn’t really think anything of it. It was just a faraway dream. But Hyungwon had remembered that, and he’d given Kihyun his perfect proposal. 

Kihyun snaps out of his thought train when he realises that he hasn’t replied yet. “Oh, shit, yes. Yes. Of course, yes. I love you so much.” He leans down, cups Hyungwon’s cheeks and kisses him. 

Hyungwon smiles when he pulls away. “May I?” he asks.

Kihyun sits down on the blanket, suddenly aware of the awkwardness of him still standing up, and holds his hand out. Hyungwon gently takes his hand and slips the ring onto his finger. 

Kihyun beams at Hyungwon, kisses him once more, whispering, “I love you,” against his lips. Then, he sits back and holds the ring up closer to his face so he can look at it properly. It shines and sparkles and there’s so much depth to it it almost looks alive. Kihyun’s amazed by the beauty of it. “This must’ve been expensive.”

“Anything for you,” Hyungwon replies. “I hope you like it.”

“I love it and I love you. How did you find one that shimmers like this? It’s beautiful.”

Hyungwon smiles and shrugs and doesn’t answer. There’s something secret behind his smile that leaves Kihyun curious, but he decides not to question it. Questions can come later. For now, he wants to enjoy this fake picnic with his boyfriend— No, his fiance. 

Well, actually, there is one question he really needs to ask. 

“Why did you go through all the trouble of setting up a picnic indoors when we could’ve just had one outside?”

Hyungwon points to the window. “Look outside.”

It’s dark outside because it’s so late in the day, so not much is visible, but from what Kihyun can see it’s almost as if—

“It’s snowing?”

Hyungwon nods. “It was forecast to snow today. I wanted to propose on the day of the first snow because, well, I don’t know, it seemed romantic, but we couldn’t exactly have a picnic out in the snow, could we?”

Kihyun feels a flower bloom in his chest with how much he loves Hyungwon. “I love you so much, you know.”

“I love you too, fiance.”

Kihyun grins. “That’s going to get old so quickly, but I love it.”

“Hey, we’re fiances now, I’m going to bring it up every chance I get.”

“You’re going to be unbearable when we’re married, aren’t you?” Kihyun says. 

“Once you’re my husband no one’s going to hear the end of it. Husband will become the number one word in my vocabulary.”

Kihyun rolls his eyes, but he’s so damn fond of Hyungwon that he smiles anyway. He just can’t help it. 

He has a fiance now, how could he not spend every second of his life from now on smiling?

* * *

Kihyun can’t stop the smile that comes to his face whenever he glimpses the ring on his finger. Whenever it catches in the light, glowing bright, he stops to look at it for a moment. 

He wonders where Hyungwon found such a ring. It’s unique—Kihyun’s never seen one quite like it before—and it makes him feel special that Hyungwon would go to such lengths to get Kihyun such a unique ring. 

Kihyun’s at home today—he’d built up so much time off work because he never takes days off that his boss had finally said enough is enough and made him take two weeks off work to rest—and he’s realised just how boring it is being stuck at home with nothing to do. 

When it’s the weekend and Hyungwon is at home with him, Kihyun never finds himself bored. The two of them are always able to find something to do together and there’s never really many times when Kihyun is stuck at home without Hyungwon for a long time. 

Of course Hyungwon goes out with friends, sometimes when Kihyun isn’t going out himself, but those are only short periods of time, and if Hyungwon’s ever gone away for a few days it’s usually been when Kihyun’s working, so he has that to distract him during the day. 

But two weeks off alone in the house other than in the evenings when Hyungwon returns from work? That’s really damn boring, Kihyun’s discovering, and it’s only the second day of his two week holiday. 

“God, I wish there was something interesting to do,” Kihyun mutters out loud. 

The very next second, he looks down at the coffee table and finds a puzzle book sitting on it, opened onto a random page. 

Kihyun frowns at the book, as he doesn’t remember having ever seen it before and it definitely wasn’t there on the table a moment ago. 

Or maybe it was and Kihyun’s just not been paying enough attention. It could’ve been left by Hyungwon as a gift because he knows that Kihyun gets bored when he’s off work and one of Kihyun’s favourite pastimes as a child was to do puzzle books, a fact that is well known by Hyungwon. 

Kihyun picks up the puzzle book and gets to work on the puzzle on the page it’s opened on–a hard level sudoku. 

Kihyun works at the sudoku for close to an hour, thinking he was close to done at some points only to realise that he’d made a mistake somewhere and having to erase most of the progress he’d made and start over. When he’s done with it and content that it’s correct, Kihyun finds himself feeling satisfied. He makes a mental note to thank Hyungwon later for leaving the book for him.

He’ll also definitely have to work on some of the other puzzles in the book whenever he starts to feel bored again as they really do work at keeping him distracted from his boredom and actually engaged in something. 

With the sudoku completed, Kihyun stands and stretches and decides to get a bit of housework done. As much as he likes living in a clean home and sometimes the process of cleaning can be quite therapeutic, there are times, like right now, when he wishes the house would just clean itself so he doesn’t have to do it. 

But, sadly, these things have to be done, so Kihyun grabs his feather duster from the cupboard and decides to at least dust off the shelves and everything, because it’s better than nothing. 

Strangely enough, although Kihyun walks around the entire house, specifically focusing on the problem areas that he knows usually get dusty quicker, there doesn’t seem to be a single speck of dust anywhere. 

Very strange. 

Maybe Hyungwon did it at some point? But even if he had, it must’ve been at least a week ago, so  _ some _ dust should’ve built up since then. 

Well, at least it saves Kihyun the effort, so he thanks his magical cleaning fairy and heads into the kitchen to make himself a cup of tea. 

Kihyun stops in the doorway. He stares into the kitchen and blinks once, twice, to try and make sure he’s not seeing things. 

But no. There’s a man sitting at his kitchen table. A man that definitely wasn’t there a few minutes ago when Kihyun came into the kitchen to do the dusting. 

“Who the fuck are you?”

The man turns around and Kihyun definitely has no idea who he is. He has round cheeks and flaming orange hair and there’s an unusual glow around him–a strangely familiar glow. 

The stranger smiles and says, “Hi. I’m Jooheon.”

Kihyun stares at him, because that’s all he can do. He can only stare. 

“Are you okay?” Jooheon asks after a long stretch of silence. 

Kihyun opens and closes his mouth a few times, trying to figure out what he can even say in this situation. After a few fails at coming up with anything, he asks, “How did you get in here? Did you break in?”

Jooheon laughs and his laughter sounds like tinkling bells. 

Who even is this man?

“I’m born of the stars,” Jooheon says, as if that explains anything. 

“Okay,” Kihyun says slowly. “And why are you here?”

“The starlight in your ring,” Jooheon says, pointing to the engagement ring Hyungwon had given him. “It’s from the same star as I was born, so I’m your protector. A star guardian, I guess.”

“A star guardian,” Kihyun repeats dumbly. “What the fuck.”

Jooheon, clearly realising that Kihyun’s struggling to process the situation, stops speaking and waits for him to catch up. 

While Kihyun appreciates it, he literally doesn’t know what’s going on. 

Somehow, a man got into his house without Kihyun hearing or seeing him, and he claims he’s born from a star and is Kihyun’s star guardian. Oh, and also apparently the ring Hyungwon gave him is also somehow from the same star as Jooheon is. 

What the fuck?

Kihyun should call someone. Maybe Hoseok, because he looks intimidating even if he isn’t. 

“Hyungwon said you’d be confused,” Jooheon says. 

Kihyun stares at Jooheon wide-eyed. So, not only has he broken into Kihyun’s house, but he also somehow knows the name of his fiance?

“He said to remember his promise and you’ll understand,” Jooheon continues as if Kihyun isn’t on the verge of losing his mind right now. 

And despite all the confusion and disbelief he holds, Kihyun considers these words. 

As soon as he does, he realises that Jooheon’s telling the truth. 

Back when Hyungwon and Kihyun started dating, they were busy university students and the only real free time they had to do things together was during the night. So, many of their dates would end with them stargazing together. 

Hyungwon knew how much Kihyun loved the stars, so he always promised to one day give Kihyun the stars. Kihyun never took him seriously, because how can you give someone the stars? 

Apparently Hyungwon found a way. 

“You really are from the stars,” Kihyun says in awe. 

“Yep!” Jooheon gives a thumbs up. “So, you’re probably wondering why I’m here.”

Kihyun scoffs out a laugh. “This sounds like the start of a bad film.”

Jooheon rolls his eyes. “Do you want to know why I’m here or not?”

“Go on, tell me.”

“You know about wishing on stars, right?” Jooheon asks. 

“Who doesn’t?”

“Well, wishes come true, actually. When you’re far away they don’t happen as often, but when you have starlight close by, say, in a ring for example, your wishes come true,” Jooheon explains. 

Suddenly it all makes sense. The puzzle book and the suddenly clean house—it wasn’t Hyungwon, it was because of the ring on his finger. 

And Kihyun shouldn’t believe it, because it’s absurd and ridiculous and entirely impossible, but he does. The proof is right in front of him, so how can he ignore it?

The glow that surrounds Jooheon makes more sense now. It reminds him of the way his ring glows—it must be how starlight shines. 

“So, do you have any questions for me?” Jooheon asks. 

Kihyun has a lot of questions, too many probably, but there is one that’s playing on his mind the most. “You said you’re my star guardian—what is that and why do I need one?”

“Well, starlight is rare and hard to get ahold of, so you might be in danger if bad people figure out about your ring.”

Great. So his beautiful engagement ring also doubles as a target. He really needs to talk to Hyungwon about his idea of good gifts and how they shouldn’t affect the safety of the recipient. (It is a truly beautiful ring though, so he won’t find it hard to forgive Hyungwon for putting a target on his back.)

“Also, if you use too many wishes, it can start to affect you, so use them sparingly,” Jooheon adds. “So, basically I’m here to protect you from both other people and yourself.”

So now Kihyun has to worry about being a target for himself, too? Just wonderful. 

“You know, this is a lot of danger because of a ring,” Kihyun mutters. He’s not  _ really _ mad, just, well, confused really. It’s a lot to take in at once. 

“But it’s a beautiful ring, isn’t it?” Jooheon says, smiling at the ring upon Kihyun’s finger. “Not many people can say they hold literal starlight on their finger.”

“That’s true,” Kihyun agrees. He looks at the ring again and he can’t help but smile himself. 

When Kihyun looks back up, however, Jooheon is gone. He frowns at the spot where he’d just been sitting, then looks around the room, but there’s no sign of him anywhere. 

Apparently star guardians can teleport, then. 

The distinct and welcomed sound of a key being inserted into the front door sounds behind Kihyun and he hurries out of the kitchen and into the lobby to greet Hyungwon. 

The second Hyungwon walks in, Kihyun throws his arms around him and hugs him tight. 

“Wow, you seem excited to see me,” Hyungwon says then kisses Kihyun’s cheek. “Is it that bad being at home all day?”

“Oh, you have no idea.” He lets Hyungwon take his shoes and coat off and settle into the living room to relax before Kihyun says, “I met your friend today.”

“My friend?”

“Jooheon.”

Hyungwon stares at him blankly. “Who the fuck is Jooheon?”

Now it’s Kihyun’s turn to stare. Jooheon knew Hyungwon by name and even quoted Hyungwon’s words back to him, so how can Hyungwon not know what he’s referring to? “The star guardian,” Kihyun explains.

When Hyungwon continues to stare at him with no semblance of understanding on his face, Kihyun adds, “Because of the ring?”

“What about the ring?”

And now Kihyun is even more confused. He thought everything was fine and made sense after Jooheon explained everything to him, but now he’s starting to doubt his sanity. “The starlight? In the ring?” 

“I wish I could get you starlight, but that’s not a thing,” Hyungwon says slowly like he’s talking to a child. “Are you okay, baby? Have you slept enough? You didn’t hit your head again, did you?”

As Hyungwon fusses over him, Kihyun tries to figure out what’s going on. 

Did he hallucinate the entire event? 

When he looks down at the coffee table, he notes the lack of the puzzle book, which he definitely left  _ right there.  _

Kihyun doesn’t hallucinate, though, so he doesn’t know how it’d be possible to hallucinate  _ so _ much at once. 

So maybe he dreamt it?

But that doesn’t make sense either, because he doesn’t remember falling asleep nor waking up. 

Kihyun decides to put it out of his mind for now. He can figure it out some other time. 

“Kihyun?” Hyungwon asks carefully and Kihyun realises he forgot to reply. 

“I’m fine, don’t worry. Just a weird dream, or something.”

And it’s left at that, Hyungwon believing his words no problem. 

But Kihyun doesn’t believe his words himself. 

* * *

Noise downstairs wakes Kihyun up from his sleep at 2:43am. He waits a moment, partially convinced that he just imagined it, but when he hears it again, he realises someone must be in the house. 

Hyungwon’s asleep in bed beside him, so that means it’s an intruder, and Kihyun is scared shitless. 

But as scared as he might be, Kihyun picks up the baseball bat he keeps beside his bed (because you never know when one might come in handy) and sneaks out of the bedroom as quietly as possible. 

With his bat held ready to swing at any moment, Kihyun, as quietly as possible, sneaks downstairs. He follows the noise into the kitchen where he spots a person he recognises—Jooheon. 

So, he exists, which definitely reassures Kihyun. 

He lets the bat fall and breathes out. “What are you doing?”

Jooheon, who has his head in one of the cupboards, says, “Oh, hi, Kihyun.”

“Hi?” 

“I came to see you,” Jooheon says simply. 

“Okay,” Kihyun says slowly. “Explain?”

Jooheon doesn’t explain. He simply closes the cupboard and sits down at the table and gestures to the seat opposite him. 

Kihyun takes the seat, hoping it’ll get him something out of Jooheon, but he still doesn’t answer even when they're both seated. 

“Why doesn’t Hyungwon know who you are or about the ring?” Kihyun asks, because he needs to understand this situation. 

“Because the ring is yours now.”

Kihyun sighs. Is it a star guardian thing to be so vague? He really isn’t a fan of this. He wants to know the whole explanation. 

So, he stares at Jooheon until he elaborates. 

“Us star guardians and starlight itself are meant to be a secret. Very few people know about it. How Hyungwon found out, I don’t know, but as soon as he gave that ring to you and it became yours, he lost all his memory of what he knows about starlight.”

“How is that even possible?”

Jooheon shrugs. “I have no idea. I’m just the messenger.”

“So, you knew Hyungwon, but now he doesn’t remember you?”

“Pretty much. He has no idea that your ring is special now, even though he was the one that made it special.” Jooheon pauses. “Rather sad, isn’t it?”

Kihyun hums. How is he meant to properly thank Hyungwon for getting him such a special gift if Hyungwon doesn’t even remember a thing about it. 

“Why did you come back?” Kihyun asks. “Am I in danger?”

“Not yet, no.”

Kihyun isn’t sure he likes the use of ‘yet’. 

“I came to ask for your help, actually,” Jooheon says shyly. 

Kihyun’s help? Kihyun’s not sure he can really provide any help and Jooheon literally comes from a star, surely he can do more than a simple human like Kihyun can, but he sees no reason why he can’t try. 

“What do you need help with?” Kihyun asks. 

Jooheon hesitates for a moment, clearly unsure about this, but then he tells Kihyun. “I’m looking for my friend—another star guardian. He went missing a while ago.”

“I can try to help, but what do you think I can do better than you can?”

“You’re smart and you know this world better than I do. If you don’t find him, I won’t be upset, but I’d appreciate it if you could try.”

Kihyun considers it for a moment, but he sees no reason to deny Jooheon. He can give it a go, and if it doesn’t work out then nothing’s lost. 

“Okay, I’ll help you,” Kihyun agrees. 

Jooheon beams at him, and when he does, the aura around him shines even brighter. 

* * *

When Kihyun wakes up in bed the next morning, he has no idea how he even got there. The last thing he remembers is agreeing to help Jooheon with finding his friend, and then it goes blank. 

Was it just a dream if Kihyun doesn’t remember going back to sleep?

He remembers waking up in the night, though, just not falling back asleep. 

God, this is confusing. 

Hyungwon isn’t in bed, which is definitely an unusual occurrence. The number of times in a year that Hyungwon not only wakes up before Kihyun, but gets out of bed before him too Kihyun can count on one hand—it’s that rare. 

Kihyun yawns, stretches, and decides to go find Hyungwon. 

It’s easy to find him as their house isn’t the biggest and Hyungwon can usually be found in one of two places—in bed sleeping or in the kitchen drinking coffee. 

It’s the latter right now, clearly. 

“Morning, baby,” Hyungwon greets. 

Kihyun kisses him and says, “Morning. What are you doing up so early?”

“I had the weirdest dream and then I couldn’t get back to sleep because I couldn’t stop thinking about it,” Hyungwon explains. He takes a long drink of his coffee. 

“What was the dream about?”

“Stars and people who come from the stars. It was fucking weird.”

Kihyun’s heartbeat picks up in his chest. Does Hyungwon remember? Is his mind showing him his memories in his dreams?

“People from the stars? Do they have names?” Kihyun asks. He hopes Hyungwon doesn’t remember their conversation the other day and thinks that Kihyun is simply being curious. 

“I don’t know, but this one was called Minhyuk.”

Kihyun breathes out. So, it’s not a memory, then, since Jooheon is the one who knows Hyungwon and told him everything about the ring. 

Then that begs the question—who the fuck is Minhyuk?

Kihyun will have to ask Jooheon about him the next time he sees him. If Minhyuk even exists anyway. Hyungwon could just be having weird dreams and Minhyuk doesn’t even exist. 

Honestly, Kihyun isn’t even entirely sure that Jooheon exists, either. 

But, there’s no point in pondering that now. He has all the time in the world to think about that when Hyungwon’s at work and Kihyun’s stuck at home with nothing to do. 

Speaking of Hyungwon being at work, Kihyun says, “Uh, honey, don’t you need to be getting ready right about now?”

Hyungwon swears, downs the remainder of his coffee and legs it upstairs to start getting ready. 

Kihyun laughs as he watches him go. 

* * *

Kihyun spends the whole day with nothing to do. He really is bored now that he can’t go to work and he can’t wait for these two weeks to finally be over. Returning to work will be the best day ever. 

In an attempt to combat his boredom, Kihyun decides to test out the power his ring had bestowed upon him. 

It turns out to be quite simple—Kihyun wishes for something, he gets it. There are limitations, of course. He wishes for Hyungwon to be with him, but he doesn’t magically appear, which doesn’t really surprise Kihyun. He didn’t expect the wishes to have influence over other people. 

Another thing he can’t wish for is money. He’d tried it, not because he and Hyungwon really  _ need _ money, but just out of curiosity. Also, it’d be nice to have a little extra so he can treat them both to a holiday or another big expense that they don’t really do so often. 

But, money isn’t possible to wish for. 

Mundane things that actually exist (he’d wished for an alien artefact, but the question of whether they exist or not isn’t one Kihyun quite has the answer to, so one doesn’t appear) are fine to wish for, though. 

“I see you’re learning lots about wishes,” comes a voice from behind Kihyun. 

Kihyun whips around to see Jooheon standing behind him. “You’re back so soon? I’m starting to think you have a thing for me,” Kihyun jokes. 

“I realised I didn’t give you details about my friend,” Jooheon says, either ignoring Kihyun’s joke or not understanding it. 

“Oh, right.”

“So, his name is Minhyuk and—“

Kihyun cuts him off. “Minhyuk?”

Jooheon tilts his head and stares at him. “Yeah? Why? Have you heard that name before?”

“Well, not so much me, but last night Hyungwon had a dream about stars and someone named Minhyuk,” Kihyun explains. “What does it mean?”

“I don’t know,” Jooheon says honestly. He looks deep in thought for a moment, then says, “Maybe Hyungwon is the key to finding Minhyuk?”

“He could be, but he doesn’t know anything about star guardians because he forgot it all. How can he help us?”

“We can tell him everything,” Jooheon offers. “He’ll be able to see me again if I show myself to him, but it depends on whether you think he’ll believe it.”

Kihyun has no idea whether Hyungwon will believe him or not. He has no doubts that Hyungwon trusts Kihyun and would want to believe anything he says, but the existence of star guardians on top of Hyungwon forgetting everything might make that hard. 

But what has he got to lose? If Hyungwon sees Jooheon and hears it directly from him along with Kihyun, maybe there’s a chance he’ll believe. 

“Okay, fine. We can give it a shot,” Kihyun agrees. “Tell me more about Minhyuk, though.”

“Well, he’s from a neighbouring star. Time is different for us, so I can’t tell you how long we’ve known each other, but it feels like forever,” Jooheon says, a smile on his face as he explains. “Like you, starlight from his star was brought to Earth and he became the star guardian of the person who received it. I haven’t seen him since.”

Kihyun feels the pain that Jooheon feels as he says it. He can’t imagine his best friend leaving one day and Kihyun never seeing him again—Kihyun couldn’t live without Hoseok—so it can’t be easy for Jooheon at all. “So, you think he’s still on Earth?”

“I believe so, yes. We can return home whenever we want, even if we are guardians, and I’m worried that something’s happened to him.”

“I’ll help you find him as best I can,” Kihyun promises. He has no clue how he’s going to go about that—it seems like an impossible task—but he’ll do his very best. 

The front door clicks as it begins to open, and Kihyun stares at Jooheon. “Don’t leave again, please.”

“I won’t this time,” Jooheon reassures him. 

Kihyun still isn’t completely sure that Jooheon’s real. There’s a part of his mind that still wonders if he’s hallucinating Jooheon, so not only does he want him to stay to explain everything to Hyungwon, he also wants the confirmation that Hyungwon can see Jooheon too. 

“I’m home!” Hyungwon calls as he enters. 

“In the kitchen,” Kihyun calls back. 

Kihyun hears Hyungwon’s footsteps grow louder as he walks down the hall and into the kitchen, but Kihyun doesn’t take his eyes off Jooheon for a second, afraid that if he so much as blinks that Jooheon will disappear. 

“Hey, baby. How was your— Who’s this?”

Kihyun breathes out, relief flooding through him that Hyungwon can see Jooheon too. 

“Wait,” Hyungwon says, frowning, “do I know you?”

Jooheon smiles at him. “We’ve met before, but you won’t remember it.”

“Jooheon here helped you with my ring,” Kihyun says. 

“Are you a jeweller, then?” Hyungwon asks. 

“No, a star guardian.”

“Like in my dream?”

Kihyun nods. “You had a dream about Jooheon’s missing best friend, whatever that means. I promised to help Jooheon with finding Minhyuk, and I thought we could do with your help.”

Hyungwon looks downright confused, which doesn’t come as a surprise. “Wait, explain everything to me.”

So Kihyun and Jooheon do. They start at the beginning, about Jooheon helping Hyungwon with the ring, then Kihyun meeting Jooheon and finding out all about the fact that his ring is made of starlight and he has a star guardian now, apparently, through to Jooheon’s missing friend. 

Once they’re done explaining, Hyungwon can only say one word: “Wow.”

“It’s a lot, I know,” Kihyun says. “You believe me, right?”

“Of course I do.” Hyungwon cups Kihyun’s face with his hands and looks into his eyes. “I’d never doubt you.”

Kihyun smiles at him, his whole body sagging with relief. “Thank you.”

Hyungwon kisses him briefly then grins. “Who would’ve thought I’d come through on my promise to give you the stars.”

Kihyun rolls his eyes and shakes his head. 

“Anyway, how do we start on our mission to find Minhyuk?” Hyungwon asks Jooheon. 

“I have no idea.”

Well, this is going to be interesting, then. 

* * *

Jooheon ends up staying with them, which is an interesting arrangement, but in only a few days they all settle into a pretty good routine together. It helps, too, that while Kihyun is at home, he has someone else to talk to and spend his time with. 

Kihyun finds himself growing closer to Jooheon, as does Hyungwon. He fits so well into their lives that Kihyun wonders how they ever lived without him around before. 

(So maybe he’s growing too attached, but that’s a conversation for another time.)

Their focus right now is on attempting to find Minhyuk, but they don’t really have any leads so far. 

Kihyun has his laptop open to try and see if he can find Minhyuk somewhere on the internet, with Hyungwon sitting one side of him, his head resting against Kihyun’s shoulder, and Jooheon on the other side. 

“Do star guardians use Facebook?” Hyungwon asks. 

“What is Facebook?” is Jooheon’s answer, which answers the question quite well. 

Regardless, Kihyun opens up facebook and does a search for Minhyuk to see if anything comes up. He scrolls through every single profile that comes up—which is a lot and it takes a really long time—but Jooheon doesn’t spot his friend in any of them. 

Kihyun repeats the same on other websites and Google, trying desperately to find any trace of Minhyuk, but he’s not an expert detective, so it doesn’t come as a surprise when nothing is found. 

“Did he tell you anything before he left? Maybe the name of the person who he became a star guardian for?” Kihyun asks Jooheon. 

“I think their name began with a C, but that’s all I remember.”

Kihyun sighs. He wishes he could do more to help, but he’s in over his head with this. With no actual leads from Jooheon other than Minhyuk’s name, there’s not a lot he can really do. 

“This is going to sound weird,” Hyungwon says suddenly, “but could my dream have meant anything? I mean, I dreamt about a star guardian named Minhyuk. It can’t just be a coincidence, right?”

“You can go nap and see if anything else comes to you,” Kihyun says, only half joking. Hyungwon’s strange dream might in fact be the only lead they actually have to finding Minhyuk. 

“I just wish I could see him again,” Jooheon says quietly. 

“I wish you could too, but don't worry. We’ll find him,” Kihyun promises. It’s not a promise he can really make—he has no way of fulfilling it—but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t try his hardest to figure it out. 

* * *

“What are you still doing up?” Kihyun asks as he enters his bedroom, finding Hyungwon sitting up in bed, glasses on, Kihyun’s laptop open on his lap. 

He’d been expecting to come home and find Hyungwon fast asleep—Kihyun had taken Jooheon out on a grocery shopping trip as he’d obviously never been on one before and they’d ended up staying out far, far later than expected—but for some reason Hyungwon is still awake. 

“It’s bothering me that we can’t find Minhyuk,” Hyungwon says. “I want to help Jooheon, so I’ve been looking everywhere for him, but I swear he just doesn’t exist.”

“He’s out there somewhere, I’m sure.” Kihyun strips off his clothes so he’s left only in his pants and climbs into bed beside Hyungwon. “But we don’t need to find him tonight.” Gently, he shuts the lid of the laptop and takes it away from Hyungwon, placing it on his bedside table. Then, he takes off Hyungwon’s glasses and puts them down with the laptop, too. 

Hyungwon yawns then and rubs his eyes. “Wow, I didn’t realise how tired I am.”

Kihyun rolls his eyes. “Go to sleep then, dummy.”

Hyungwon glares at him, but then smiles and kisses him. “I missed you.”

“I wasn’t even gone that long.”

“But you’re letting your star guardian take up all your time,” Hyungwon whines, but Kihyun can’t tell if he’s being serious or not. 

Just in case, Kihyun says, “I’ll spend more time with you, I promise. I just got caught up with trying to find Minhyuk for him and showing Jooheon how things work here and everything.”

“I know, don’t worry,” Hyungwon says. “lt’s just been a weird time, hasn’t it?”

“It has.” Kihyun kisses Hyungwon’s forehead and says, “Goodnight, baby.”

“Goodnight,” Hyungwon says, eyes already slipping closed. 

Kihyun flicks off the light, lies down cuddled up beside Hyungwon and shuts his eyes himself, ready to sleep, too. 

Except, what can only be a few minutes later at most, their bedroom door quietly opens and shuts again, and Kihyun looks up to see Jooheon standing at the end of the bed, wringing his hands together. 

Kihyun glances at Hyungwon and checks he’s still sleeping and asks in a whisper, “What’s up?”

“I don’t know,” Jooheon whispers back. “I feel—weird.”

Kihyun sits up, concerned. “Weird how?”

“I don’t know,” Jooheon says again. 

Kihyun pats the bed beside him and Jooheon sits down next to him. He rests the back of his hand against Jooheon’s forehead, checking his temperature, but it doesn’t seem out of the ordinary. 

Then again, what would Kihyun know about what is and isn’t ordinary for a star guardian?

“Sleep here,” Kihyun offers. He doesn’t know what else he can offer for Jooheon right now. He doesn’t want to wake Hyungwon up, but Jooheon doesn’t seem to be able to explain what’s wrong with him. 

The bed is big enough for the three of them, anyway. 

Jooheon looks reluctant, but then he lies down beside Kihyun and shuts his eyes, clearly exhausted. 

So, star guardians actually  _ do _ need sleep, Kihyun’s learning. 

Lying between the two of them is extremely warm, too warm in fact, but Kihyun doesn’t want to move, so he lies there as the two snore either side of him and eventually sleep comes to him. 

* * *

Kihyun is awoken by quiet chatter. He blinks his eyes open and finds Hyungwon and Jooheon, both still in bed either side of him, talking to each other. 

“I told you we should’ve left,” Jooheon says to Hyungwon when he notices that Kihyun’s awake, shooting Kihyun an apologetic look. 

“He doesn’t mind, do you?” Hyungwon asks, looking at Kihyun too. 

“Not when I get to see your pretty face when I wake up,” Kihyun answers with a huge grin, just because he knows Hyungwon will find it cringy. 

And find it cringy Hyungwon does. He fake gags and complains, “You’re gross.”

Kihyun winks at him. “That’s the aim.”

“I think it’s cute,” Jooheon comments quietly. 

“Thanks,” Kihyun says, smiling at him. “I think we’re kinda cute sometimes too.”

Hyungwon rolls his eyes. “I’m cute. Not so sure about you.”

Kihyun smacks him over the back of the head, which is well deserved in his opinion. 

Hyungwon just grins at him innocently. 

“Oh, Kihyun, Hyungwon thinks he has a lead on Minhyuk,” Jooheon says. 

Kihyun’s eyebrows shoot up. “How?”

“I had a weird dream again, like the one before and this time there was another person there, Changkyun,” Hyungwon explains. 

At this point, Kihyun will take anything that could possibly help them find Minhyuk. He really wants to do this for Jooheon. 

Hyungwon having dreams is rather strange, though, and Kihyun’s not quite sure what to make of it. Anything seems possible at this point, though. 

Then, he remembers the conversation from the other day. Kihyun had said he wishes that Jooheon can see Minhyuk again. The whole thing about Jooheon being his star guardian and Kihyun’s ring stemmed from his wishes coming true—so what if this wish has come true, too?

Could Hyungwon’s dreams really be the answer to where Jooheon’s best friend has gone?

Kihyun doesn’t bring up what he’s realised to Hyungwon and Jooheon just yet—he doesn’t want to give false hope if he’s incorrect—but he does agree to try and look for Changkyun instead. 

Finding Changkyun, it turns out, is a lot easier than finding Minhyuk. One of the first profiles Kihyun happens to find on Facebook under the name Changkyun that he clicks on has a photo of two men as the profile picture. 

“Oh my god, that’s Minhyuk,” Jooheon says, pointing to the blonde man on the right. 

“So that must be Changkyun,” Hyungwon says, referring to the dark-haired man beside him. “Was it really that easy?”

“I can message him?” Kihyun offers. Hyungwon’s right—it does seem to easy—but there’s still the chance that things don’t quite work out. 

“Please do,” Jooheon says. 

So, Kihyun types up a message. It reads:  _ ‘Hi, Changkyun. You don’t know me, but I have a friend who’s been looking for his friend, Minhyuk, for a while, and it appears that you know Minhyuk. Is there any way we could get them back into contact? You can tell Minhyuk it’s Jooheon that’s looking for him.’ _

He hits send and anxiously awaits an answer. 

Jooheon’s bouncing in his seat with anticipation. “I’m so scared. What if he messages back and says Minhyuk wants nothing to do with me?”

Kihyun rests his hand on Jooheon’s knee to stop him from bouncing it. “It’ll be fine, promise.”

Changkyun is a quick replier, it turns out, as he replies almost immediately with an offer for them to meet in a park later on around 20 minutes from Kihyun and Hyungwon’s house. 

“Minhyuk’s been this close the whole time?” Jooheon asks. 

“I guess so,” Kihyun says. He quickly types back a reply to Changkyun, agreeing to meet him at 1pm and then says, “Guess we just have to figure out what to do with our morning.”

* * *

The three of them end up lazing in bed all morning watching the first two Twilight movies because Hyungwon insists that they’re a necessity for everyone to have seen and Jooheon obviously had never experienced them before. 

“I don’t know how I feel about those movies,” Jooheon says on their walk down to the park to meet up with Changkyun and Minhyuk. 

“There’s more of them,” Hyungwon says. 

“Why?”

Kihyun laughs. “Don’t worry, we won’t make you watch them.”

Jooheon breathes an audible sigh of relief. “Thank you both for agreeing to come with me and for helping me to find Minhyuk,” he says suddenly. 

Kihyun side hugs him as they walk along. “We only wanted to help. It’s a pain that this park seems to be taking forever to walk to. I wish we could be there sooner.”

In the next second, Kihyun, Hyungwon and Jooheon are standing in the park they’re meant to be heading to. 

“You forgot about the wish thing, didn’t you?” Jooheon asks. 

“Absolutely not. I intended for this to happen,” Kihyun says, but it’s obvious it’s not the truth. He really had forgotten all about his ring and how it can magically grant him wishes. It’s still such a foreign concept to him that that’s probably why he always forgets about it. 

“Well, that was weird,” Hyungwon says. “You’re really telling me I somehow got you this magic ring that allows you to do that?”

“You did,” Kihyun says. “Anyway, we should probably go find Changkyun and Minhyuk.”

Minhyuk is easy to spot even from a distance because he has that same glow about him that Jooheon does. As soon as the three of them spot him, Jooheon goes running off towards him. 

Minhyuk must spot Jooheon, too, as he starts running and they meet in the middle in a hug. 

Kihyun and Hyungwon decide to keep it to a casual stroll. They reach the two star guardians at the same time Changkyun does. 

“Nice to meet you,” Changkyun says, sticking out his hand towards Kihyun. 

“Nice to meet you too,” Kihyun says and shakes his hand, then Hyungwon does the same. 

“Minhyuk’s been going on about Jooheon for years, so when you messaged me neither of us could believe it.”

“What happened to you?” Jooheon asks Minhyuk after they finally release each other from the hug. 

Minhyuk takes a step towards Changkyun and slots their hands together. “I kinda accidentally fell in love?”

Jooheon stares at him, jaw dropped. “We can do that?”

Kihyun can’t help but laugh at this, because Jooheon’s innocence is just so adorable. 

“We can. Maybe you should try it.” Minhyuk looks pointedly at Kihyun and Hyungwon. 

Kihyun wonders if somehow he knows something that none of them do. 

“We should probably leave you two to catch up,” Kihyun says, not only because he does actually want to give Jooheon and Minhyuk some space and some time together, but also because that look and comment from Minhyuk has left him feeling funny inside and he really wants to get home. 

They all say their goodbyes and Changkyun says they should all definitely try to get to know each other better, which Kihyun is happy to agree too—having some more friends is never a bad thing. 

Kihyun and Hyungwon take a taxi home to save themselves the walk, and neither of them speak on the drive back. Kihyun wonders if Hyungwon is as hung up on Minhyuk’s comment as he is. 

When they’re finally back home and inside, Hyungwon says, “I wouldn’t be against it if you’re not.”

“Against what?” Kihyun asks, confused. 

“Us and Jooheon. The three of us,” Hyungwon elaborates. 

“Like, a relationship?”

Hyungwon nods. “I’m happy with just you, but we always said if someone happens to come along that makes us both happy, why turn that down?”

And he’s right—that is a conversation they’ve had time and time again to be clear they’re on the same page. If they weren’t, Kihyun wouldn’t have said yes to marrying Hyungwon. 

“I mean, he really does fit in well, doesn’t he?” Kihyun asks shyly. 

Hyungwon brings Kihyun into a hug and kisses his forehead. “We can see how it goes. We don’t have to do anything.”

“I like the idea of seeing if things develop,” Kihyun says. 

Honestly, he’s noticed how much of an impact Jooheon has already had in the short time he’s been here. He really lights up every room he’s in (both physically and metaphorically) and while Kihyun can’t say he’s got deep feelings for Jooheon already—it hasn’t been long enough for that—he can see himself falling for Jooheon in the future. Jooheon’s brought so much happiness to Kihyun and Hyungwon, that it doesn’t feel like just Kihyun and Hyungwon anymore, it feels like Kihyun and Hyungwon and Jooheon. 

Because it hasn’t been long enough just yet, Kihyun isn’t going to commit to anything, and they’ll need to have a long talk with Jooheon before anything happens anyway, but for now he’s happy to have had this conversation with Hyungwon and know that they’re both on the exact same page. 

Kihyun kisses Hyungwon and whispers, “I love you,” against his lips. 

“I love you too,” Hyungwon says. 

And Kihyun smiles and as he does so, the starlight in his ring shines just a little brighter. 


End file.
